Wild Fire Bids Farewell To Summer Chapter 21
by2 after the autumnal equinox
The cinder track of the Jiujiu Square track and field is reflective in the midday sun.The particles are slag left over from the boiler, glassy slag, with sharp edges, and black rubber crumbs left by the trampling of previous students deposited on the surface.Wei Zhiheng was sitting in the first row of the auditorium. The plastic stool was dented and groaned as the air was squeezed under the weight.
The blue and white striped parasol above the head was moved by Huang Jinye from the sports equipment room yesterday. The ribs of the umbrella were rusted reddish brown, and the shadow cut a flowing grid on the ground.The wind blew from the direction of Guixi River, and the umbrella surface bulged and made a popping sound.
Wei Zhiheng held an enamel cup in his right hand. The wall of the cup was printed with “Guixi Ergao” in red letters. The paint peeled off in three places, revealing the black iron sheet, and the edges were rolled up.The cup was filled with warm water, and the surface of the water reflected the broken ripples of the umbrella shadow, as well as his own face – the skin was so thin that it was almost transparent, and the veins on the sun’s cheeks were raised and blue-purple, beating under the pale skin. The blood was extremely pale and pink-white, and the capillary network under the skin was clearly visible.
He took a sip of water; the water slid over his tongue, without warmth or taste.The smell of ketosis remains in the mouth, sweet and rotten, like over-fermented fruit in a closed room.He raised his hand to cover his mouth, exhaling in the palm of his hand. The sweet rotten smell penetrated between his fingers and mixed with the plastic smell on the playground to form a turbid, organic fishy smell.
His left hand rested on his knee, his fingernails glowing lavender.Press the edge of the plastic stool with your fingertips to make white marks. After releasing, the purpura spreads outward from the center of the indentation, with irregular edges and a map shape.
He didn’t look at his hands, but stared at Huang Jinye who was bending to tie his shoes at the starting point of the runway.
The radio made an electric noise: “Please gather the sophomore men’s 4×100 meter relay athletes at the inspection area.” The voice was hoarse, and the tail was blown away by the wind.
Huang Jinye stood in the fourth lane, with his back to the audience.The school uniform jacket was zipped up to the chest, revealing a black sports vest with “Guixi Second High School 055″ printed on the back.His right leg is straight, his left leg is bent, and his knee is touching the ground.The hems of his sports shorts were frayed, exposing white fibers, and there was a dark stain on his right knee – it was water accumulation. The fluid in the joint cavity sloshed under the skin, making a muffled sound as he adjusted his posture.
Wei Zhiheng stood up.
The plastic stool bounced up behind him and hit the back of the seat in front of him, making a metallic clang.He held onto the railing with both hands. The iron pipe was hot from the sun, and the skin on his palms adhered to the metal surface, causing a slight pulling sensation.
The moment he stood up, black spots appeared at the edge of his vision. They were fixed and did not move with the eyes. The boundaries were blurred, like ink stains wiped away by fingers.He closed his eyes and opened them again. The black spots were still there and spread a little, swallowing up the arc at the edge of the runway.
The starting gun fired.
The first three athletes rushed out, steel spikes piercing the cinder surface with a crunching sound, black particles flying, forming brief clouds of dust in the air, then falling to cover the white lane markings at the edge of the track.
Wei Zhiheng stared at the figure of the third athlete.The figure was distorted at the edge of the field of vision, the boundaries were blurred, and it swayed like water ripples.He blinked hard, his vision clear for a moment, then immediately clouded again.He heard his own heartbeat hitting his eardrums, hard and fast, and the blood flow formed turbulence in the carotid arteries, causing the eardrums to bulge.
The third stick is close.
Huang Jinye turned around, facing away from Wei Zhiheng, leaning forward, extending his right arm backwards, his palms open, his knuckles protruding, and there was black dirt between his nails, which was a mixture of cinders and stone powder.The white line in the connecting area was heated by the sun, and the mixture of limestone powder and rubber particles formed a raised mark on the ground.
The moment the baton hit Huang Jinye’s palm, he rushed out.
He has a long stride and an exaggerated arm swing. He wears a black electronic watch on his right wrist. The rubber strap slaps the wrist bones with the swing of the arm, making a soft popping sound.His right leg landed hard, making a dull impact; his left leg landed lightly, with only the tip of his shoe touching the ground, making a slight friction sound.One heavy and one light, one heavy and one light, the rhythm is steady, half a beat different from the frequency of the water in his knees shaking.
Wei Zhiheng slipped through the gap in the railing.The metal bar scraped the outside of my thigh, and the skin burned beneath the fabric.
He landed, his knees bent for cushioning, and a dull pain exploded deep in his left hip – the aftershock of the steel needle rotating in the bone seam, like sand grinding in the joint cavity at this moment.
He stepped forward, dragging his right foot quickly.The noise in the auditorium forms a membrane on the eardrum, which is turbid and distant, with low frequencies retained and high frequencies lost.He heard his own breathing, heavy and bloodshot.
Huang Jinye accelerated at the bend.When the left knee is bent, it makes a dry friction sound. The water in the joint cavity squeezes the meniscus under the action of centrifugal force, causing sharp pain.He did not slow down, but instead increased the swing of his arm, and his right shoulder hit the air, making a sound of wind.
He glanced across the runway to the first row of the auditorium.
It was empty, the plastic stool had fallen to the ground, the enamel cup rolled to the railing, and the water spilled out, forming dark round spots on the cement floor, being evaporated by the sun, shrinking around the edges, and crystallizing salt.
The finish line is close.
Wei Zhiheng saw Huang Jinye’s face clearly.Sweat soaked into the forehead, the pores expanded, the face turned gray-white, the skin swelled, and the cuticles wrinkled, like paper soaked in water for a long time.His lips were pursed, and there was a bloodshot slit in the center of his lower lip.
Closer.
Huang Jinye’s right spike shoe stepped on the depression on the edge of the track – it was the pit left by the javelin throwers at last year’s sports meeting. It was filled with hardened cinders, soaked by the rain and then dried in the sun.
The heel slips.
The body is out of balance.
fall.
The right knee hit the ground first, and the skin on the front side of the patella hit the surface of the cinders directly; the glassy particles embedded themselves into the skin under the impact—smashing in, like countless thin needles being driven into the flesh at the same time, or like hot sand being pressed into a wound.Huang Jinye didn’t cry out, he just snorted from his throat, and the air flow squeezed out from the oppressed glottis, making a hissing sound.
He threw his body forward and put his left hand on the ground, trying to stop the roll.The cinders cut the palm of the hand, and the black particles were mixed with red blood. White marks formed at first, and then blood beads oozed out after half a second.The cinders were embedded too deeply, so he tried to shake them off. He slapped the ground with his palm, making a dull sound, but the particles did not move at all. Instead, they drilled deeper under the slap, embedded in the dermis, and overlapped with the palm prints, forming a black vortex.
When Wei Zhiheng reached the finish line, Huang Jinye was kneeling on one knee, trying to stand up.The right knee bears weight, and the cinders rotate and grind in the wound, producing high-frequency stinging pain.He staggered, pushed his left leg off the ground, threw his body forward, and his chest hit the red ribbon at the finish line.
The ribbon broke, floated up, and fell on his blood-stained shoulder.
Wei Zhiheng did not stop.His body moved forward with inertia and hit Huang Jinye’s back, but the force was not strong enough and he fell over.The two of them fell to the right side together, rolled half a circle on the cinder track, and made a rustling sound as the school uniform fabric scraped against the black particles.Wei Zhiheng’s left elbow hit the ground while rolling, and blood seeped out from the dermis, slowly and thickly, forming large purple-black bruises on the pale skin, mixing with the red and black on Huang Jinye’s palm.
The two separated.
Huang Jinye was lying on his back on the track, his chest rising and falling, his breathing wheezing, and the air flowing through the narrow airway, making a whistling sound.
Wei Zhiheng was lying on his side, with his right hand on the ground, trying to sit up, but his arms were shaking, his muscles were weak, his fingers slipped on the cinders, and he could not support his body.He lowered his head, and a fishy sweetness filled his throat – blood clots, thick and sticky, gushed out from the depths of his nose and mouth.He vomited on the track, and dark red blood clots hit the surface of the cinders. They were jelly-like with bubbles on the surface. They were accumulated in the mouth after the gums bleed, and fell off after being shaken by running.Blood clots quivered on the cinders, then shattered and seeped into the gaps between the grains.
Standing next to the finish line was Li Min.She held a stopwatch in her hand, with a plastic case and a red button.She looked at the two people on the ground, at the blood clots spit out by Wei Zhiheng, and at the cinders embedded in Huang Jinye’s knees.She did not step forward, but just lowered her head and wrote a line of words in the notebook, and the ballpoint pen made a rustling sound on the paper.Then she raised her head, looked at the audience, and then at the infirmary teacher who was coming on the other side of the runway. Her eyes were unfocused, as if she was confirming some kind of data, and her lips were pursed, forming a downward arc.
Two athletes from other classes ran over. They were Huang Jinye’s teammates, wearing the same red vests.They stopped two meters away, looking at the blood on the ground, looking at the purple-black spreading on Wei Zhiheng’s elbow, and looking at the black particles embedded in Huang Jinye’s palm.One of them took a half step forward, then retracted his foot, the sole of his shoe rubbing against cinders, making a harsh sound.Another person wanted to pick up the baton that had fallen on the track. His fingers touched the baton, but he failed to hold it tightly. The baton slipped from his fingers and hit the cinders again, making a dull sound.The two of them froze in place, their knees trembling, neither running away nor stepping forward.
Huang Jinye propped up his body.He pressed his right knee with his left hand and tried to dig out the embedded cinders, but the particles were too small and embedded too deep. When digging with his fingertips, bloodshot threads were produced, and the cinders were pressed deeper and embedded in the subcutaneous tissue.He gave up and put his palms on the ground. Blood seeped out from his palms and mixed with the cinders to form red-black mud, leaving five fingerprints on the ground. The fingerprint vortex was clearly visible.
Wei Zhiheng was still trying to sit up.His vision turned into a tunnel, surrounded by a black ring and a circular bright area in the center. Huang Jinye’s figure in the bright area was shaking and the edges were faint.He stretched out his hand, not to grab Huang Jinye, but to grab the ground. He spread his fingers and inserted them into the gaps between the cinders. The black particles pierced the gaps between his nails, causing a sharp sting. The sting made him wake up for a moment, and his vision narrowed, focusing on the black spots on his fingertips.
Huang Jinye turned his head.He looked at Wei Zhiheng, at the purple-black bruises on Wei Zhiheng’s elbow, at the bloodshot eyes hanging from the corners of Wei Zhiheng’s mouth, and at the cinders in Wei Zhiheng’s hands.He moved his body to the side, not crawling toward Wei Zhiheng, but away from the white area of the finish line to make room for Wei Zhiheng.The fabric of his sports shorts rubbed against the cinders, making a dry sound, leaving a red drag mark behind him. Blood flowed from his knees and was flattened by the weight of his body, forming a dark red coating.
Wei Zhiheng finally sat up.He arched his back, feeling severe pain in his waist, and every breath brought a dull pain in his pelvis.He looked down at his hands. His palms were filled with cinders. The black particles mixed with the purple-red purple of purpura, forming a texture like a geological layer.He did not make a fist, but just opened his palm, letting the blood seep out from his palm and drip on the cinders; the dark red blood spread among the black particles, forming an irregular lake in the shape of a map, with jagged traces of penetration on the edges.
Huang Jinye sat next to him, about fifty centimeters apart.Huang Jinye’s right knee was bent, and blood flowed down his calf into the canvas shoe on his left foot – the one soaked in turpentine in Chapter 1. The upper was originally gray and yellow, but now it was stained dark brown by blood. Mixed with the old stains of turpentine, the color turned dark brown with blurred edges. The chemical smell of turpentine mixed with the rusty smell of blood, forming a sharp and pungent smell that sank at the ground level.
The teacher from the infirmary ran over with a medicine box, and the hem of his white coat was stained with the yellowish brown color of iodine.She stopped in front of the two of them, her breathing rapid, the metal buckles clanging against each other.She looked at the two of them, at the blood on the ground, at the purple-black color on Wei Zhiheng’s elbow, and at the cinders embedded in Huang Jinye’s knees.”Can I still go?” the teacher asked, with a Guixi accent in his voice and a deep sound at the end.
Huang Jinye shook his head.He stretched out his left hand, spread it out, with his palm facing up. The three embedded cinders shone in the flesh, black, glassy, with sharp edges and stained with blood, as evidence.He didn’t hand it to Wei Zhiheng, nor did he say anything. He just opened his palm and showed the three particles embedded in the flesh. The palm prints were cut by the cinders, forming black faults.
Wei Zhiheng looked at the three cinders.He stretched out his right hand and hovered over Huang Jinye’s palm, stopping five centimeters away from the cinders; his fingers were spread out, the joints were stiff, and the purpura on the fingernails showed a swollen purple color in the sunlight.His hands were shaking, and the muscles under his skin were trembling slightly, starting from the inside of his wrist, jumping and jumping to his knuckles. His fingertips were spasming, and the joints were locked in a grabbing posture, but they did not fall.
Blood dripped from Wei Zhiheng’s left elbow, hit Huang Jinye’s palm, and mixed with cinders. The dark red blood wrapped around the black particles, forming purple-brown mud.The impact of the blood droplets caused the cinders to roll in the palm of the hand, exposing the glassy edges and cutting into the new blood droplets, making the color darker.
Huang Jinye clenched his fist; not Wei Zhiheng’s hand, but the three blood-stained cinders, and his nails left four crescent-shaped indentations on his palm.He did not look at Wei Zhiheng, but looked down at his knees, watching the blood flowing down his calf into his shoes, and watching the black spots formed by cinders in the wound, contrasting with the surrounding red and swollen skin.
Wei Zhiheng retracted his hand, bent down, and picked up a piece of scattered cinders from the ground, loose particles on the surface of the track; he pinched it with his thumb and index finger, raised it to his eyes, and looked at the sun.Cinder is translucent and black, with bubbles inside, solidified foam, and a glassy luster on the surface.
He released his fingers, and the cinders fell back to the ground, hitting the pool of blood, making a crisp impact sound, bouncing once on the surface of the blood film, and stopped, surrounded by blood.
The parasols stopped spinning overhead, the wind died down, and the shadows were fixed to the ground, rectangular with sharp edges.Announcements for the next group of matches rang out from the distant radio. The sound was distant, murky and came from underwater.
The two of them sat on the runway, covered in blood. There was no dialogue or contact. They just sat side by side and watched the blood dripping on the cinders, slowly seeping and solidifying.The black particles absorb the red liquid and change color from bright red to dark brown.
Oxidizing.
Depositing.
New strata are forming.